March 2008

March 23, 2008

The replay doesn't look good. It looks like it could be an ankle or knee injury, as Dirk came down hard defending a Spurs fast break with 3:18 left in the third quarter.

UPDATE: Dirk was helped off the court. He can't put any weight on his left leg.

UPDATE, PART II: ABC's Michelle Tafoya says Dirk tried to put weight on the leg in the tunnel, but he could not do it. She made it sound like there was pain in the foot, but again, this is just speculation.

UPDATE, PART III: Tafoya confirms that it is a left leg AND ankle injury. Dirk has had X-rays, but the results aren't known yet.

That's right. No talk of ugly basketball in the East -- at least on Easter Sunday. The Spurs made 11 of 46 shots in the first half and followed it up with four ugly misses to start the second. Not to take anything away from the Mavericks' defense, because it is keeping the Spurs away from the basket, but the Spurs are missing a lot of wide open shots.

The Mavericks have opened up a lead at 52-40 early in the third. And right now, the Spurs are not showing enough life to believe they can turn this one around.

The Mavs could get taken out by all these falling bricks. The Spurs are shooting 11-of-51 (21.6 percent) with less than 10 minutes left in the third. The Mavs are playing good D, but make no mistake -- San Antonio simply can't shoot today.

Right before the trade deadline, the Mavs brought in Jason Kidd to keep up with the top teams in the West. They do have a winning record (9-7) since that trade. However, a closer look at the numbers shows every win they have has come against sub-.500 teams and every loss has come to teams with records above .500. At the time of the trade, I was in favor of the move. I still believe the Mavs are a better team with Kidd than with Devin Harris. Unfortunately one thing has become very clear; Kidd is no longer a threat to score. He has lost that quick burst to blow past defenders. He looks like he has lost the confidence to make an open jumper.

There in lies Dallas' problem. Other teams have recognized this and have begun to shade Kidd's defender towards either Dirk Nowitzki or Josh Howard. This creates some cramping and doesn't allow the offense to flow as freely as it did under Harris. The key for the Mavs to break out of this is simple. Kidd is not going to become a jump-shooter overnight. That means Howard and especially Jason Terry need to start stepping up their play.

How are the Spurs still in the game despite shooting 20.7 percent from the floor? Well, they have hit 9-of-9 free throws with eight minutes left in the second. The Mavs have hit just 1-of-2 free throws. If this disparity continues, I bet we'll hear about it in the postgame.

Tim Duncan is 0-for-6 from the floor, with a turnover with 2:59 left in the first quarter. The bad news? Mavs are only up by one -- 14-13. This is no shootout, folks. The Spurs are shooting 3-of-17 from floor (17.6 percent). The Mavs are playing energetic defense, but the Spurs also look like they are still asleep.

What would it take to be a good afternoon?Well, we'd like to play some defense similar to what we played lastgame. I thought our defense was pretty good. Any time you hold one ofthe better teams in the league to 34% shooting, and outrebound themand 22% from the three-point line, you're supposed to have a shot atwinning the game. You know, our last nine possessions of that game,we turned it over three times, we missed three layups, we missed afree-throw or two. We just can't have that in the last two to fourminutes of the game.

The Mavs continue their long nightmare against winning teams tonight, still looking for that elusive first meaningful win with Jason Kidd in town. If they can beat one team that would lift their spirits, it's this one. The Spurs are a major Mavs rival, and a win here would not only put the Mavs on a better mental plane, it would move them very close to jumping over the Spurs into the six-seed spot.